USA - Did Meghan Markle (43) copy someone else's work? A British author makes serious accusations against the Duchess of Sussex.

There are "striking similarities" between her book and Meghan's Netflix show, author and illustrator Mel Elliott told The Sun.

In a letter sent by the author to Meghan's team, she clearly criticizes Meghan's planned animated series "Pearl".

The 43-year-old had announced the animation project in 2021 - as part of a 100 million dollar deal with Netflix.

However, at the time of Meghan's announcement, Elliott had already published three parts of her children's book series "Pearl Power".

The similarities between the two works are "too numerous and too striking to be a mere coincidence", the letter states. There is a "risk that the project could infringe intellectual property rights".

Elliott had tried several times to contactboth Netflix and Meghan's production company Archewell, but always without success.

"Meghan is a feminist who stands up for other women, so I was disappointed and confused when I saw how similar Netflix's proposed series was to my own book series, which had been written seven years earlier," says Elliott.

However, the British author can take comfort in the fact that "Pearl" was already canceled in May 2022 - officially due to budget cuts at Netflix.

Elliott emphasized: "I'm glad Meghan's show was canceled, and I hope I had something to do with it." However, Elliott could have imagined working on the series as a collaborator or consultant.

"The world of art and media is very competitive and I'm afraid it's quite common for powerful people to copy the work of lesser-known creatives," she said.

This is not the first time Meghan has been confronted with accusations of plagiarism. Most recently, parallels were drawn between her Netflix series "With Love, Meghan" and Pamela Anderson's (57) "Cooking with Love".